


Signals

by fencesit



Category: Naruto
Genre: Domestic, M/M, POV Hoshigaki Kisame, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 18:42:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29122845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fencesit/pseuds/fencesit
Summary: One night, Kisame makes the tea.
Relationships: Hoshigaki Kisame/Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 63
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Signals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kimmu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimmu/gifts).



Itachi can still toss a loop of wire around a tree branch far overhead, hang the teapot, and start the fire. He can fill the teapot, find the tea cups, add the tea, pour the water. Itachi is just as capable as always, even if Kisame has to read the updates to their orders and Itachi is always blotting thick blood away from his eyes after challenging fights, and Kisame has no practical reason to deviate from the way they've always split their camp chores up. 

But he does. One night, _Kisame_ makes the tea. He hands Itachi one of the cups, keeps the other for himself. Their fingers brush when he hands the tea over, his sword callouses against Itachi's deceptively smooth skin. When they've touched before it's been the heat of the moment, a race to the finish. This is something different, slower, more careful but less dangerous. 

It's nice to sit next to someone and share a warm drink. 

It's nice that sitting as close to Itachi as he dares means sitting right next to him instead of across the fire. 

It's nice that they've both long since stopped worrying about the other poisoning them. 

Itachi closes his eyes while he drinks his tea. Another expression of trust, delicate and carefully extended, paper-thin and fragile. Itachi could kill Kisame with his eyes closed — Itachi is literally going blind and hasn't lost his edge even a little — but it's not about Itachi making himself less dangerous. It's about Kisame being in charge of visual signs of danger. 

A bird calls in the woods. "Real or a signal?" Kisame asks quietly. He can only recognize the calls of sea birds, no matter how long he stays land locked. 

"Real," Itachi says. His eyes are still closed. He describes the bird making the sound, a kind of owl that lives in the hollows of trees. It's grey, it has a pale face, it has red eyes, it has _fluffy ears_ and a collar of feathers. 

Its call sounds like a cat mewling, which Kisame wouldn't have thought was proper for a bird but it's not exactly his business to tell an owl it sounds wrong. 

"They teach this stuff in Leaf?" Kisame asks. Anyone spending so much time identifying birds in Kirigakure wouldn't have lasted the week, but Konoha is softer in most ways. 

"No." Itachi doesn't elaborate and Kisame doesn't press for more information. 

It doesn't matter how or why Itachi learned it. It's enough that he shares it with Kisame. It's enough that his head dips to rest on Kisame's shoulder, as the night progresses, and he trust Kisame enough to know it's alright to sleep. Kisame is pleased to take first watch. 


End file.
